ACADEMIC INTEGRITY
Encountering the ideas and words of other writers is one exciting part of the academic project. As your
professors, we encourage you to explore the work of other researchers and writers in your field and draw on
the work of those people as you develop your own papers and presentations. However, you are also
responsible for understanding the guidelines of how to appropriately acknowledge those sources in your own
work. If you use ideas or words from any external sources, including the internet, without appropriate
attribution, you are committing plagiarism.
To avoid plagiarism, you will use three strategies to incorporate and acknowledge the work of external sources
into your own work:
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Summarizing
Paraphrasing
Quoting
Whichever strategy you use, you must still acknowledge your debt to the original writer’s idea by following
the summary with a citation of your source.
SUMMARIZING
You should summarize when you want to convey the MAIN idea of someone else’s work; summaries should
be written entirely in your own words. Even though the new text will be in your words, you must still
acknowledge your debt to the original writer’s idea by following the summary with a citation of your source.
Summaries are substantially shorter than the original text you are summarizing.
We’ve given you an example below.
Original text
Here is another application of the same principle. You see this bit of cane. I have seen boys about the
streets, who are very anxious to appear like men, take a piece of cane, and light it, and smoke it, as an
imitation of a cigar. They are enabled to do so by the permeability of the cane in one direction, and by
its capillarity. If I place this piece of cane on a plate containing some camphene (which is very much
like paraffine in its general character), exactly in the same manner as the blue fluid rose through the
salt will this fluid rise through the piece of cane. There being no pores at the side, the fluid can not go
in that direction, but must pass through its length. Already the fluid is at the top of the cane; now I can
light it and make it serve as a candle. The fluid has risen by the capillary attraction of the piece of
cane, just as it does through the cotton in the candle (Faraday 132).
(This excerpt is from Michael Faraday’s “The Chemical History of a Candle” in Scientific Papers.
Vol. XXX. The Harvard Classics. New York: P.F. Collier & Son, 1909–14. The parenthetical
citations are in MLA format.)
Acceptable summary
Faraday shows the process by which a wick functions in a candle by comparing it to the action of a cut
section of cane set upright in a dish of flammable liquid. In both candle and cane, fluids spread
through the internal capillaries of the objects from bottom to top. Faraday lights the tip of the cane
and so demonstrates how a candle can similarly burn even when no fuel is visibly apparent (Faraday
132).
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Unacceptable summary
Faraday demonstrates the way the wick in a candle works by using the substitute material of a piece of
cane and some camphene; both candle and cane may be lighted by the same principle of capillarity.
In the cane, the flammable fluid in which Faraday immerses it rises through the piece of cane. Since
the cane has no pores at its side, the fluid must pass through its length. Once the fluid rises to the
top, Faraday lights it and shows how the cane can serve as a candle (Faraday 132).
Comment
The above is an unacceptable summary because both the wording and the overall phrasing are too
derivative of the original. The phrases in bold are either exact or near exact duplicates of the original.
Note, for example, that a phrase such as “rise[s] through the piece of cane” could have easily been
written as “moves upward” and the word “serve” could have been easily changed to, for example,
“work” or “function.”
Be careful though. When you are writing a summary, you can’t just change key words and phrases
into their synonyms. You need to take the total of the main idea and translate that idea into your own
writing style and syntax, as we have done for you in our “acceptable” example above.
PARAPHRASING
You will paraphrase rather than summarize when you want to present some of the DETAIL (rather than just
the main idea) of a point another author is making.
Your paraphrased work should be almost entirely in your own words. You may integrate brief quotations from
the original along with your paraphrase when the original wording is critical to the point you are making.
Paraphrases are generally about the same length as the original text you are paraphrasing or even slightly
longer.
Make sure that you paraphrase the author’s points in the same order, and with the same importance, that the
original author presents those points (otherwise you are misrepresenting that author’s thinking). If your
paraphrase changes the order of the author’s points, you may be changing the author’s priorities and so
misrepresenting the ideas of the author.
Acceptable paraphrase
Faraday demonstrates the process by which a wick functions in a candle by creating a parallel process
in a set of props that mimic a candle and wick: a section of cane with a porous center and non-porous
outside shell plus some liquid camphene (a substance similar to paraffin). Both the cane section and
the wick of a candle share the characteristics of being internally porous and externally impermeable;
both also contain capillaries that urge the introduced liquid in a single direction, a process Faraday
calls “capillarity.” Faraday first sets a cut section of cane upright in a dish of camphene. The
introduced fluid moves upward via a process Faraday calls the “capillary attraction of the piece of
cane.” He then lights the upper tip of the cane, and it becomes a surrogate candle. By aligning the
functions of the two items—cane and candle—Faraday makes visible the hidden process of how a
candle wick continues to burn even when no fuel is visibly apparent (Faraday 132).
Unacceptable paraphrase
Faraday uses a bit of cane to demonstrate how the wick in a candle works. He places the piece of
cane on a plate containing some camphene (a substance similar to paraffin), and the camphene rises
through the piece of cane. Since the cane does not have pores in its wall, the fluid can not pass out
horizontally through the walls of the cane, but must pass upward through its length. Once the fluid
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reaches the top, Faraday lights the piece of cane. The camphene has risen by the capillary
attraction of the piece of cane, just as it does through the cotton in the candle (Faraday 132).
Comment
This paraphrase is unacceptable because the paraphrased wording is too close to the original wording.
The sections of the paraphrase that are in bold are what make this an unacceptable paraphrase.
QUOTING
You should only use quotations when one or more of the following situations applies:
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When the wording of the original text is so specific to the meaning that you would not be able to change
the wording without changing the meaning
When the wording of the original is particularly eloquent or piquant and you need to keep that flavor of the
language in order to make the point you are making
When you are using the authority of an outside source to lend credence to a point you are making, and to
summarize or paraphrase the words of that source would delete the power of his or her authority in
supporting your argument
In all other cases, you should summarize or paraphrase.
Some overall guidelines for using quotations:
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In most cases, quotations should not take up more than twenty percent of your total text (and that’s
pushing it).
Quotations should be used to support, clarify, or comment on a point that you are making in your own
words. You should never use a quotation to make your point for you. You, as the writer, are responsible
for making the point. The quotation is there to develop that point in some manner. Your reader should be
able to skip all your quotations and still understand the main ideas of your argument.
Quote only those parts of the original text that you really need in order to support your point. If you find
yourself quoting a long block of text in which, really, only a few scattered sentences or phrases are key to
the point you are making, delete the sections you don’t really need and use ellipses (…) to indicate that
you are skipping sections of the original text that are irrelevant to your point.
CITING YOUR SOURCES
Whether you are summarizing, paraphrasing, or quoting from a source, you must always acknowledge your
source via parenthetical citations (citations within the text of your paper) and by listing your sources at the end
of your paper.
Check with your instructor to find out which citation format he or she wants you to use:
MLA (Modern Language Association), APA (American Psychological Association), CMS (Chicago Manual
of Style), CBE (Council of Biology Editors), or another form.
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